The past ten days have swept by in a rush. Since my last blog entry (I know I promised to keep more up to date, but so many critical things come up every day that finding the time has been difficult - not a good excuse but the best one I have for now), we had our Kiva Retreat party which was a tremendous success, 8 more rehearsals and our first publicity photo shoot!
We also got a final commitment from Michael Butler to do several audience talkbacks during our opening weekend as well as to help participate in publicity sessions which will increase the coverage of our production. It is impossible to overestimate how this will help us. There is no doubt that celebrity has cachet among journalists (even reporters are star-struck :-) and we have already seen the effect in our initial discussions with radio and TV stations since we started telling them that Michael will be available for some interviews on local talk shows. Several weeks ago, producers of several of these shows were relatively "ho-hum" when asked whether they might want us to come on their shows to promote HAiR; now they are returning our calls!
Michael, of course, is the original producer of HAiR on Broadway and one of the five people, along with authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado and composer Galt MacDermot, and director Tom O'Horgan, who are most responsible for bringing HAiR to the world and turning it into the influential work that it ultimately became. Having Michael work with us is something truly remarkable for a small theater group like ours. He has just announced his own production of HAiR which will take place at The Met theater in Los Angeles in September and yet he is still taking valuable time from his schedule to come up to see our production in July and help us with our publicity efforts.
THANK YOU MICHAEL! YOU ARE AMAZING!
So, now, sitting here on Tuesday morning, I realize that tonight is our last rehearsal before we take a break for Memorial Day weekend, a "long" six-day stretch that is our last "down-time" before we head into the final 7 weeks of rehearsal that will culminate with opening night on July 14th. Since I started the blog almost 50 days ago, we have come so far, and yet we still have so far to go. The tribe is solidifying, but there is a lot of work to be done on all fronts. I am sure we will make it, but there are certainly bumps in the road ahead.
Now for a day-by-day update:
Friday, May 11
Barb and I, along with our daughter Ashley, went to see HAiR at Bishop O'Dowd High School. It was a fascinating experience because we didn't expect it to be very good and yet it surprised all of us. For a high school production (let alone a Catholic high school production), it was very true to the spirit of HAiR, even though it did have to make changes to accomodate using younger teenagers in the show (i.e., obviously no nude scene, and some wording changes, although not as many as one might expect; for instance, they did Sodomy intact which totally took me by surprise!) I wrote a rather long review of the show on Michael Butler's Hair blog and rather than repeat it here, I will just link to it. Have fun!
We did make contact with Bishop O'Dowd High School director Dennis Kohles after the show and he is going to provide us with a loan of many resources from his production (props, wigs, costumes). And he has graciously offered to provide us with some assistance with staging that replicates in some cases the original Broadway choreography. Thanks Dennis!
Saturday, May 12
The tribe came to our house around 6 PM and we had a marvelous dinner catered by my lovely wife, partner and producer par excellence Barbara. I grilled chicken and hamburgers and Barb made marvelous grilled veggies and tofu dogs for the non-meat eaters among us (even the meat eaters enjoyed them!) We watched three videos (Flashback to the Sixties, VH1's Behind The Music: HAiR, and In Search Of America: The Stage). The first one provided a very nice background of the sixties, and the second one was a documentary done by VH1 (someone in the tribe had recorded it off-the-air) about the making of Hair on Broadway and in the movies. The last one had Peter Jennings documenting a high school production of Hair in Boulder, Colorado, in 2001, right before and after September 11.
After the last video, we did a consciousness-raising exercise about nudity in the show, and how people felt about performing in this way. It was an amazing moment, which I can't document in detail because of confidentiality that the entire tribe agreed to, but we all opened up to each other and I think it served as the first big step in bringing the tribe even closer together. We learned that we all have fears and anxieties, even those many of us would not have expected.
Finally, we went to Kiva at midnight and had a delightful 1-1/2 hours sitting in the hot tubs and sauna, some nude, others not, but all enjoying the time together. At the end of the evening, we had our tribal naming ceremony and everyone offered something to the tribal altar. We ended the night by singing Aquarius very softly, a very moving experience.
Sunday, May 13
Rehearsal came too early for most of us after the long night! We straggled in at 10:30 (we gave everyone an extra half hour because of the previous evening's event) and Dudley started working on more movements for Donna, Aquarius and Hair. Watching how well the tribe is working together makes me feel that everything is going to be great!
By the way, we now have a Hud! Peter Griggs came to rehearsal and he is both a very good singer and actor. He has some conflicts, but he is committed to join us, so I offered him the part and he accepted!
Monday, May 14
We did an evening of music with small groups (Electric Blues, Eyes Look Your Last, Give Up All Desires, I Believe In Love) which went very well.
I particularly enjoyed working on Eyes Look Your Last which is going to be somewhat unique in this show. I took the idea from the Candlefish production in 1999. Typically, this song is sung under Claude's last reprise of Manchester England which is part of the finale. Unfortunately, both the beautiful melody and the striking words by Shakespeare (from Romeo and Juliet) are usually lost because of the duet. I am adding a sextet to sing Eyes Look Your Last over the scene between The Bed and the Finale, just before Claude sings the reprise of Ain't Got No. I found this very effective in Candlefish's production, plus it highlights this amazing song. Of course, the entire tribe will still sing Eyes Look Your Last in counterpoint to Claude in the finale as well, but now the audience will also get to hear the song by itself.
Tuesday, May 15
Christian Hadsell joined the tribe today and he looks to be both a good dancer/mover as well as a good singer. Welcome Christian!
We worked on setting the basic moves for Aquarius today. It went very well although we had some false starts trying to decide the timing of the movements in the circle of dancers around Claude.
Wednesday, May 16
We encountered a small "bump in the road" today. Last night by email, I announced the understudies for Berger (Leslie Lamcke), Woof (Dustin Velasquez) and Sheila (Ana Escobar). In the morning I received an email from an unnamed tribe member who expressed concerns that the process for naming understudies was causing dissension among the tribe. I asked the person by email to talk openly, but it was not something they wanted to do. Since the characterization had been made that the tribe felt the same way, I felt that it was important to openly discuss the situation with the entire group.
At rehearsal, I read the email to the tribe and explained why we had handled understudies as we had. I appeared that the biggest issue was that we were not naming all understudies yet, and that possibly people felt that I should only name understudies from the existing tribe who had participated in the initial audition process. I pointed out that while I had tried hard to do this, it wasn't a requirement, and in fact it was incumbent upon me as director (and the staff as a whole) to name the people who were best for the parts even if they hadn't joined the tribe yet. And in some cases, I might not choose to name an understudy at all.
This brings up one of the interesting dynamics in doing HAiR (a dynamic that has apparently existed since the show was first done on Broadway). The desire to bring the cast together as a "tribe" is an important part of doing the show. However, that can also lead to a confusion on the part of the tribe about who has what responsibilities and authority in making decisions about the show. If the director and staff of the production don't honor the implicit pact made when assembling a tribe, it can cause enough dissension to hurt the show (not a good thing). On the other hand, there simply are decisions that have to be left up to the people who are taking the production risks of producing a show.
In most shows, such an argument would never come up, because casts simply understand that the director gets to make those decisions. There is no democracy involved. HAiR alters that dynamic in subtle ways, and it is important for any director who embarks on a serious effort to mount this show to earn the trust of the tribe and to honor that as much as possible. However, it also is important to not yield all authority to the tribe, because that would make it impossible to direct the show at all.
In the end, I think we reached a very good understanding. Obviously there were a few people who wanted to at least understand what we were doing and why in more detail. I provided that explanation. However, it also seems clear that overall, people are still excited and willing to commit to this production. As long as we keep making this a unique experience, I think that will continue to be the case.
Thursday, May 17
We continued our choreographic explorations. Dudley does a terrific job in offering ideas to the tribe and they are responding. However, both of us agree that we need to start setting more things or we will quickly run out of time!
Friday, May 18
Our first break day in a while! I have to get caught up on my work, but I am also spending time with Barb making sure advertising contracts are negotiated and we continued to try to get the San Jose Pride group to offer us a spot (but it doesn't seem to be likely at this point, sigh).
At night, Barb and I go to see Thunderbabe at Theatre on San Pedro Square, Bobbi Fagone's "superheroine" musical based on her straight play of the same name. We are pleased that it is very entertaining and musically very good. I wrote a review on Artsopolis. Our ad is on the back cover of the program and although it is black and white, it is quite nice!
Saturday, May 19
We have another trio/quartet music day, this time covering White Boys, Black Boys, Air, What A Piece of Work Is Man, Dead End and Hippie Life. Great work everyone!
Right after rehearsal, Barb, Ashley and I head up the 880 towards Sacramento. We are very much looking forward to seeing Artistic Differences' production of Hair. The drive is enjoyable and the show is even more so! This is a REAL production of HAiR. It is done in a small warehouse theater, with a set that looks like a back alley in New York, junk lying all over the stage. But what is most fun is the tribe! They are really hippies (or at least excellent actors portraying hippies!) I wrote a post on Michael Butler's blog describing the entire show. Enjoy!
There are a lot of things to like in this production. It has heart, really good singers, a true Hair spirit, and some wonderful small touches. There are a few weaknesses. Dudley and I have always agreed that the choreography in the show needs to LOOK like it is totally spontaneous, although, of course, that is completely impossible, it has to be choreographed to a large extent. The Nimiipuu tribe gets it right most of the time, but there are moments when everyone's arms go up in exactly the same way, or the foot movements are strict and obviously "set". We know we need to try to avoid this. This is still a very small fault in a very good production.
Their nude scene is excellent. It does the job simply and effectively. I didn't like the addition of an expository scene between Claude and Sheila right before the finale. I thought it "took us out of the musical" for a few minutes, and weakened the ending somewhat. However, it was so good overall, that even this didn't hurt it much.
We talked to some of the actors to see if they were interested in joining our tribe. We might get one or two, but most seem interested in auditioning for the Los Angeles production and the timing is such that they probably can't do both. Sigh...
Sunday, May 20
We have an early dance rehearsal and we work on Walking In Space. Dudley has some terrific ideas involving walking on the backs of actors positioned on the floor on their hands and knees, but I am not sure they will work. One problem is that we will be using handheld mics and it looks like the logistics of balancing and safety while walking across the backs of other performers may make it impossible to use the mics properly. We may need to rethink this.
He also works on "floating, flipping" and that looks very nice. It is always exciting to see people lifted into the air and this song so calls for that.
After the rehearsal, one of my fellow workers at Coral8, Paul Neyman, comes to take publicity photos. Paul is a real photog with professional quality digital equipment and he jumps right in. Barb has arranged an assortment of costumes for the tribe to try, and we get contributions from the tribe members themselves. We are on the lawn in the sun in front of the Hoover and it is very exciting! This is the first time we have put the people in colorful hippie clothes and they look GREAT!
Summary
Well, that is almost up to date. I will fill in Monday and the rest of the this week soon. Fortunately, we have the big break coming up, and then it is mad dash for the finish line! See you all soon.
Peace,
Jon
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